Homemade knives and sheaths

I have recently begun making knives in my spare time. I will one day make an instructable but I wanted to post these for now. The blades in these knives are crafted from old files and saw blades and the handles are made either from deer antlers or wood. The sheaths are made from leather.

I have been using deer antler for some time on my knives now! I have a tip I discovered about antler. I was also making a Native American Peace Pipe from Birch and antler. If you take a small propane torch and carefully heat the antler by waving the flame over an area that you want to darken, it will turn golden brown. It is a trail and error thing. Too much and it will burn, too little and it will turn lightly brown. Try it and see. My knives turn out great! If I have a white area that needs to be darker! Have fun, as ever, Triumphman 4-2-12

hi this may be a silly idea but have you thought about adding plyable ribs to the leather intrnally or threading them into the matrial ... i know its not a leather hardening technique but if u ribbed em it would give it more of a rigid structure hope it helps jack.

I am sorry that there are disappointed people out there because there are no instructions. This is just a slide show it does not count as an Instructable, its a slide show. All of these knives were made before I new how to make an instructable so there were no pictures taken to document the procedures, which I have stated above in my description. I would like to think that people may just see the pictures I do have and become inspired to try it anyways. All of the above knives I made with no previous knowledge or experience and with no instructions. Just experimenting may wind up making you happy.

Wow I think this is the 3rd time I've seen this. Its not supposed to be an instructable instead of saying "How to make homemade knives and sheaths" it says: homemade knives and sheaths. you obviously have never made an 'ible if you didn't know about the slideshow option

I so totally don't see why this counts as an Instructable ... Sure, the knifes look pretty well made and really nice, got to give the maker credit there, but without a guide, it's basically just showing off.

Wow I think this is the 3rd time I've seen this. Its not supposed to be an instructable instead of saying "How to make homemade knives and sheaths" it says: homemade knives and sheaths. you obviously have never made an 'ible if you didn't know about the slideshow option

Wow I think this is the 3rd time I've seen this. Its not supposed to be an instructable instead of saying "How to make homemade knives and sheaths" it says: homemade knives and sheaths. you obviously have never made an 'ible if you didn't know about the slideshow option

In the antler displayed here I used they concept you used with your wood. I cut the antler with the band saw, giving me 2 pieces, and removed bone from one side to accommodate the blade and glued the pieces back together. I have been experimenting with bone and have found that you can drill a series of holes that will accommodate the tang on the file and allow you to insert the tang along with glue into the antler.

Did you do any kind of heat treating of the blades, or did you simply grind the files down to form the blades? The steel files are made of will hold an awesome edge, however they are very brittle (even more so if you grind the blades on a dry wheel) and that can make them a bit dangerous. Files have been made into knives since Spanish Colonial days that I know of, perhaps even longer that that. The knives I've made out of files were annealed first, then shaped (wet grinding or forged) and then heat treated appropriately to make them serviceable. It would be simple to do a primitive case-hardening on them, provided the blade is thick enough.

Very nice indeed... Have you any bright finished blades..? as in polished.? I'd love to see one of those hit with some 1000 grit wet 'n' dry... They would come up a treat!! Fantastic job!! Two thumbs up! :)